UNITED WAY KICKS OFF FUND-RAISING DRIVE

By AmyJo Brown/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF

Volunteers for the United Way of Southeast Arkansas announced on Tuesday a $1.25 million fund-raising goal for their fall 2007 campaign, the same goal as last year.

“We tried to look at the economy and not overdo it; we tried to be reasonable,” said Frank Anthony, chairman of the fall campaign and Pine Bluff School District superintendent.

Anthony made his remarks at United Way’s kickoff luncheon at the Pine Bluff Country Club, which attracted 186 people — a 46 percent increase over last year’s event, organizers said.

Anthony told the crowd the fund-raising goal is more than achievable by Dec. 21, the campaign’s deadline.

“That’s small change, folks,” he said. “We’ve been there, done that.”

Last year, United Way of Southeast Arkansas collected $1,251,530 — exceeding its goal by about 1 percent.

The highest goal the organization has ever set was $1.38 million, in 2002.

The nonprofit charity raises funds in order to distribute the money to about two dozen charities and government agencies in six counties: Grant, Jefferson, Arkansas, Cleveland, Desha and Lincoln.

Each spring, an allocations committee meets to decide where the previous year’s donations should go. That decision is made by reviewing applications submitted by agencies and organizations. In the past, that list included 27 entities such as the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, the Arkansas Foodbank Network, the Boy Scouts, the Boys and Girls Club and Jenkins Memorial Center.

About 99 cents of every dollar donated is returned to Southeast Arkansas, according to United Way campaign literature.

At the luncheon Tuesday, United Way volunteers, along with members of the Pine Bluff and West Pine Bluff Rotary clubs, heard testimony from two families who were helped through United Way donations after a tornado destroyed more than 90 homes and two dozen businesses in Dumas on Feb. 24.

Alonzo Hampton, an assistant football coach at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff, said his family lost the home they had purchased just two years earlier. He said the American Red Cross was a godsend, as were other agencies that helped the family through the tragedy.

“I always used to take it for granted when I saw people jiggling the red buckets,” Hampton said. “United Way is for real. If you have to give, give. If you don’t have a way to give, find a way to give.”

Brenda Bearden of White Hall also thanked United Way publicly Tuesday for helping her parents, whose home in Dumas was also destroyed in the February tornado.

“It was a quiet Saturday afternoon and I was sitting on my couch when my brother called me and said he couldn’t get hold of mom and dad,” Bearden said, adding that her brother is typically very calm. “It didn’t take very long before my husband was putting on his shoes and getting his keys. We headed to Dumas — and the Red Cross beat me there.”

She said she could not recognize her hometown, nor the neighborhood where she grew up.

As they began to salvage what they could from the house, “The United Way not only offered food and drink, but my parents were (able to get) their medications, cleaning supplies, hygiene supplies ... the list goes on and on. The volunteers made my mom and dad feel like they were there for the long haul.

“I am at a loss to describe how grateful I am.”